If all human beings practiced the Golden Rule uttered by Jesus, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise," Luke 6:31 mental influence would always be beneficial. No one wants to be mentally influenced without his knowledge and permission. Particularly, he does not want to be affected by an evil force he is scarcely aware of. But this situation is more prevalent than most people realize. Investigation and intelligent prayer are needed if the situation is to be corrected and the deliberate efforts of depraved mortals to frustrate and confuse whomever they consider their enemies are to be stopped.
Christian Science provides the means for silencing mental malpractice. Mary Baker Eddy investigated and knew well the ways of evil, even while she was declaring its nothingness on the basis of God's omnipotence and allness. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she says: "The march of mind and of honest investigation will bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of some sort, the growing occultism of this period. The present apathy as to the tendency of certain active yet unseen mental agencies will finally be shocked into another extreme mortal mood, —into human indignation; for one extreme follows another." Science and Health, p. 570
Mrs. Eddy then quotes the verse from the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse which depicts evil as a dragon casting a flood of water after the woman who had "brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron." Rev. 12:5 Evil is ever attempting to destroy the Christ, the idea of Love; but according to prophecy, evil's time is short.
